DVR Alert: Wild Man Blues

Next Thursday evening at seven, at 92Y Tribeca, I’ll be on a panel with the critics Christian Lorentzen, Nico Baumbach, and Nicolas Rapold to discuss the work of Woody Allen, following a screening of “Manhattan Murder Mystery.” In her program notes, Miriam Bale, the organizer of the event and programmer of the series (which, under the rubric “Before and After Woody,” also includes the Bob Hope comedy “The Cat and the Canary” and “Roman Scandals,” starring Eddie Cantor), writes of “Manhattan Murder Mystery” that “this first post-Mia film might be considered the beginning of Allen’s late period, except that this utterly enjoyable Diane Keaton vehicle is more of a throwback to his earlier (funnier?) films.” (It’s important to note that Miriam knows from the concept of “lateness”: she co-curated BAM’s 2009 series “The Late Film,” which is one of the strongest, most original, and most influential New York repertory series in recent years.)

I was planning to say something next Thursday about Miriam’s take on the film, but circumstances compel me to jump the gun: the beginning of Allen’s late period is not a movie he directed, but “Wild Man Blues,” Barbara Kopple’s documentary about the filmmaker’s 1996 clarinet jaunt through Europe in the company of Soon-Yi Previn, whom he would marry the following year. The vehement public criticism that he faced as a result of that relationship turned Allen from a man about New York to something of—if not a recluse or hermit, at least a guarded man who kept a greater distance from the life of the city. And for Allen, who is one of the era’s great American cinematic urban folklorists (along with Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee), the change became evident in his work. The release of “Wild Man Blues” (it screened at Sundance in 1997 and was released theatrically the following year) marks the dividing line.

“Wild Man Blues” isn’t available on DVD; it will be on IFC TV tomorrow at 6 A.M. and next Tuesday at 10:30 A.M. E.T.

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